1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention generally relates to a method, medium and apparatus for canceling noise from an input sound, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus whereby a sound source signal corresponding to interference noise is canceled from a sound that is input through a small-size digital sound obtaining apparatus having a microphone array in order to obtain only a sound source signal radiated from a target sound source.
2. Description of the Related Art
An age has emerged in which making of phone conversations, recording of external voice, or taking of moving pictures using portable digital devices is a routine. In various digital devices such as consumer electronics (CE) devices, portable phones, and digital camcorders, a microphone is used as a means for obtaining sounds. In order to implement a stereo sound using two or more channels instead of a mono sound using a single channel, a microphone array including a plurality of microphones is generally used.
The microphone array can obtain an additional feature regarding directivity, such as the direction or position of a sound to be obtained, as well as the sound itself. Directivity involves increasing sensitivity with respect to a sound source signal radiated from a sound source located in a particular direction, by using differences in time at which sound source signals arrive at a plurality of microphones of the microphone array. Thus, a sound source signal input from a specific direction can be reinforced or suppressed by obtaining the sound source signal using the microphone array.
Environment where a sound source signal is recorded or a sound signal is input through a portable digital device is more likely to include noise and neighboring interference sound and less likely to be a calm environment having no interference sound. For this reason, techniques for reinforcing a particular sound source signal required by a user from composite sounds or canceling unnecessary interference noise from the composite sounds have been developed. Recently, there has been increasing demands to accurately obtain only a sound source signal desired by a user, such as in video conference or voice recognition.